This invention relates to a container assembly for microwave cooking, more particularly to the microwave cooking of foodstuffs, such as French bread pizza, which are improved in appearance and texture by being at least partially browned or crisped upon microwave cooking.
A variety of foodstuff browning or crisping package constructions, particularly for frozen foods, is known in this art. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,230,924 and 4,267,420, issued to Brastad, disclose that paperboard may be provided with a relatively thin layer of aluminum film, with the aluminum acting as interactive material whose temperature will be increased upon the absorption of microwave energy from a conventional microwave oven. This local absorption of heat provides a browning or crisping to the surface of a foodstuff which contacts the paperboard. Typically, paperboard is provided with a coating of polyethylene terephlythalate (PET) beneath which is positioned a layer of vacuum deposited aluminum, the aluminum thus sandwiched between the PET and a paperboard substrate. One or more layers of an adhesive are generally employed to maintain this laminate.
Certain types of frozen foodstuffs are particularly adapted for browning or crisping using such a microwave interactive laminate or construction. For example, pizza, when conventionally cooked, displays a browning or crisping on the bottom of the dough, with the top of the pizza being at least partially melted. A consumer convenient package may be formed which includes a paperboard laminate of the microwave interactive material described above, with a frozen pizza placed in a tray or traylike support, with the tray and the pizza therein being inserted in an outer container. For use, the consumer has often had to manipulate the outer container or a separate spacer member after opening of the package, in order to place the tray in some desired position relative to the package and thus relative to the bottom of a conventional microwave oven.
The manipulation by the consumer of such a frozen food package represents an inconvenience. The consumer must take time to read and properly understand the instructions for such manipulation. For example, in one such commercially available package, a French bread pizza is placed within a tray, the tray being provided on at least a major portion of its surfaces with microwave interactive material to thereby brown or crispen the frozen pizza. The consumer must remove the tray from the outer carton, remove the frozen pizza from a pouch or other covering, place a spacer member between the tray and the bottom of the carton, and reinsert the tray into the outer carton for final cooking in the microwave oven.